AwesomeSpec building in TS4?

[Budgie]

Obviously we won't have actual AwesomeSpec until the FOJ gets the game and curbstomps all the inefficiencies, but I wanted to amass some building tips to maximize skill-gaining and reduce whining. The only thing I've found so far is making 'mood rooms' with items that build the corresponding skill or enhance the mood of the room. The downside of this is that I've had to put a computer in every mood room so writers/programmers/comedians can take advantage of the surrounding mood boost when training those skills. Does anyone have a better way that they organize their houses, or any other optimization tips?

[Motoki]

I don't like using the environmental mood boost items because they screw with the wants too much, including from passers by. There's no way to lock wants in this game and I don't want it so everyone who passes through a given room get, say, focused, then not focused again cycling through the emotion based wants several times.

It's easy enough to to do things like Browse Simpedia, practice chess, take a thoughtful/steamy/etc shower that I just try to do those things before I do my skill building. There are some paintings where you can 'view <emotion> painting' and I do use those because they don't reek wreak havoc on emotions of everyone in the room. Also there are some foods you emotional foods you can make and store and I use those too.

The main other thing is I try to fulfill wants and aspirations first and to get the Never Tired reward ASAP because that gives you about an extra third of the day to work with for skill building or whatever.

Also you can switch between aspirations at any time and grab all the points for each of the levels you may already have anyway (ie if you house is worth X amount, you have a bar and two stools, became an adult, collected X # of collectibles etc. etc.). I usually cycle through them all for any sim I haven't yet done that on and then head back to their main one. Some of the aspirations and levels are easier than others too. So I go for the easier ones just for the points and then switch back later to one I really want them to do.

Keep in mind too that any of the knowledge aspirations give the Quick Learner trait so you can switch to one of them when you sim is building skills then switch back to another aspiration later.

The Savant reward, which also build skills faster, is the second one I usually shoot for after getting Never Tired.

But definitely having them on the right emotion for each particular skill provides a significant bonus so that should be done whichever way you can.

[Madame Mim]

. . . wreak reek havoc on emotions of everyone in the room. Also there are some foods you emotional foods you can make and store and I use those too.

fify - I decided to leave 'fulfill' alone - because you're American aren't you?

Other than that - some very useful ideas that I have barely considered. The cycling of Aspirations I hadn't considered, but you can do something similar for jobs when a Sim has a desire to reach a certain level in X number of jobs.

I just want/need Macrotastics. With no Neighbourhood progression available I have to keep the entirety of my family in one household.

Mood rooms are good for skilling. I tend to keep a bookshelf in each room and cluster like skills together - art and music in the same room. Homework and computers in another and 'charge' the Sim with any emo-buffs before I send them to that room (although I do keep some homework and PC specific buff objects in the room itself - focussing items specifically.

I also leave some mood crystals by the front door to have Sims go to work energised.

[J. M. Pescado]

I would imagine that, unlike previous games where you wanted maximum traffic flow, and thus tended to put doors on all sides of rooms, in TS4, you would want to limit your houses to a tree topology, with mood rooms connected exclusively by neutral, non-mood-affecting corridors and halls to prevent sims from flipflopping as Motoki describes, so that no room exhibits any through-traffic.

[Budgie]

I also leave some mood crystals by the front door to have Sims go to work energised.

Is there some benefit to always going to work energized? I know some jobs have that as the ideal mood and that there's a requirement for going to school while energized to raise grades. Am I missing some other perk?

I would imagine that, unlike previous games where you wanted maximum traffic flow, and thus tended to put doors on all sides of rooms, in TS4, you would want to limit your houses to a tree topology, with mood rooms connected exclusively by neutral, non-mood-affecting corridors and halls to prevent sims from flipflopping as Motoki describes, so that no room exhibits any through-traffic.

To me flip-flopping isn't as big of a deal, because the little wants don't provide enough points to make it worth filling them. Since most of the good rewards cost more than 1000 points, the little 25 point wants aren't worth keeping around when I could be fulfilling a 250 point LTW. Reducing through-traffic is definitely important, because my Sims have an obsession with walking in on each other in the bathroom and embarrassing each other at least twice a day. Ideally I suppose all the bathrooms would only be accessible via one door leading to a neutral corridor, to reduce the chances of intrusion and preserve skilling moods. The entryway should probably also be neutral so the Sims can go to work/school in the appropriate mood.

[Madame Mim]

They just don't seem to come home as exhausted if they go out energised.

[Salomon]

All this talk about building rooms with special skill mood boosting objects and neutral corridors and focusing on fulfilling worthwhile wants while ignoring small ones doesn't make TS4 sound like a life simulator at all....

[J. M. Pescado]

It's not as if mood-manipulation tricks haven't been with us since the earliest days of the series, in which you'd ornament the hell out of the front lawn because that was the last thing your sim would see as it boarded the carpool to work, thus increasing mood as much as possible, as remembered from TS1 and 2.

[Motoki]

fify - I decided to leave 'fulfill' alone - because you're American aren't you?

Guilty as charged.

And yes macrotastics would be nice. Hell, I'd settle for Counter Uses You because for some reason in some of my houses they always seem to pick the farthest damned counter they can instead of the one right next to them. It doesn't make any different if the counter is completely bare and the type and price of the counter doesn't seem to matter either as far as I can tell.

[eaglezero]

Since writing requires going to the mailbox to get published, and licensing songs also requires going to the mailbox, it's good to have the inspiration/creativity room be the first one off the hallway/closest to the front door and mailbox so your sims don't waste time.

[Alexx]

Macro-tactic maybe at first very helpful in case to clean some invisible dirty spots and almost invisible transparent glass ...actually this one of most TS4 annoyance ...same as endless easter eggs ...